I don’t know where “software engineer” started but in Australia engineers have to study for years and then do a minimum amount of study every year to keep their license. Which we don’t have to do. I’ve always been weirded out by Software Engineer even though it seems to be becoming more common.
Engineering is engineering. You design it, you build it, you test it. Engineering. We shouldn’t gatekeep words.
With that said, I recognize that certain engineering disciplines have overlap with public safety, and should come with some qualifications to back it up.
Single software engineer can nowadays do more harm than most of other engineers. Just one SQL injection and all the people’s personal data have been leaked. Single bug in car self driving software and the car drives in to school bus.
I like the title only because I got a degree in computer engineering and passed the fundamentals of electrical engineering exam. I definitely don’t do any engineering but it makes me feel like my degree wasn’t a waste.
Edit: also that was an 8 hour test that I really took for no reason.
Software engineer is an accurate term for a lot of roles. The problem is when software engineers step out of their lane and start pontificating about other engineering fields.
You have to do that to be a “Chartered Engineer”, “Professional Engineer” etc. Some states require you to have some kind of registration to practice in some roles.
“Engineer” remains an unprotected term in all states and territories as far as I know but I could be wrong. It’s definitely unprotected federally.
I’m in tech and “computer programmer” has always sounded to me like a grandma phrase. Like how all gaming consoles are referred to as “the Nintendo” or “the game station”.
I remember telling my high school guidance counsellor I was planning on becoming a programmer. She looked at me, head tilted like a confused dog and asked what excited me about Event Programming (as in, planning and scheduling large in-person events).
That was the first time someone didn’t understand what I did for work, and it was about 5 years before I started doing it.
That’s funny, plain “programmer” would be my preferred term if it weren’t for the fact that non-tech folks think it sounds like menial work. I’ve landed on “software engineer” because that’s what my employer calls me and other people seem to understand a little bit, too.
Here in Canada you can’t call yourself an engineer unless you are a qualified and licensed engineer. So most people have to call themselves “developer”. When you see someone calling themselves a software engineer it should mean something.
I was hired with the official title “software engineer,” then I was noted in all unofficial org charts as a “SE/DE” (software engineer/data engineer), and recently my boss announced that I have had my title officially changed to “data engineer”. My job functions have not changed the entire time I’ve been here. I write Python, SQL, KQL and Pyspark scripts and have to fuck around with Azure architecture sometimes. So there’s not always clear delineation between these terms, anyway.
Lol, are you me? Job application said software engineer. 3 months after I was hired, it changed to data engineer with no changes to the work I do. I wasn’t even notified, just noticed on a random day that the role on my profile on Teams had changed. I also do Python, SQL, and Pyspark scripts, but use AWS instead.
I’m technically an aerospace engineer, but all I do is code most days. I think it depends highly on what you do, since my job also involves doing things not strictly coding related as well, I always slap the engineer title next to it. If you only code, then it’s more appropriate to say software dev, or programmer. But, again its highly dependent on your role.
And as other people have mentioned, seems like outside the U.S. the term engineer is a protected title, so my take really only applies within the U.S.
I would say tho, a lot of programmers in the U.S. do get called software engineers. Just depends on where you go I guess.
I don’t think what you study in your degree is the defining factor. Obviously this is country-specific but I feel you job title isn’t always linked 1:1 to your title.
I studied Industrial Engineering, which in Spain exists as a degree but not as a job position. Position wise, I’ve been a mechanical design engineer, a manufacturing engineer, an automation engineer, robotics engineer, and these days I’m mostly a software engineer. I’m definitely specialised in engineering, regardless of the tools I’m applying to solve the task at hand.
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